Musical drums are generally comprised of a shell and one or two tunable membranes locked into an annular frame, generally referred to as a drumhead, which is tensioned over the shell.
To provide the proper tension to the drumhead, the shell has an arrangement of tensioning lugs attached to it, with threaded tension rods extending from the tensioning lugs. During installation the drumhead is placed over the shell and a counter hoop is placed over the annular frame of the drumhead. The tension rods engage the counter hoop and are tightened to stretch the drumhead membrane. By adjusting the torque of the tension rods within the tensioning lugs, the stretched drumhead membrane changes pitch.
More particularly, the tensioning lug, tension rod and counter hoop arrangement is a system that is designed to apply force to a drumhead, typically in a uniform manner, to stretch the drumhead membrane over the shell. By tightening the tensioning lugs, the tension rods pull on the counter hoop to tension the drumhead membrane thereby increasing the pitch when struck. Conversely, loosening the tensioning lugs permits the tension rods to release tension on the counter hoop thereby lowering the pitch of the drumhead membrane when struck.
As such, the stretching of the drumhead membrane to the desired tension is what gives the drum its musical and playing characteristics, including pitch, stick rebound, etc. The tone of the drum and the stick rebound, usually referred to as the “feel” of the drum, are determined by the drumhead diameter, its tension and the thickness of the drumhead membrane.
To date only several apparatus have been used to practice playing an acoustic drum without generating the loud sound levels associated with playing a drum. One such apparatus is a disc of foam or rubber placed over the top of the drumhead membrane. The foam or rubber disc absorbs the force of a drumstick striking the disc and muffles its sound. However, the foam or rubber disc eliminates the natural rebound of the drumstick striking a drumhead membrane and substantially deafens the tone of the drum. As such, use of a foam or rubber device is more like practicing on cardboard boxes.
Another drum practice device designed for simulating drumhead tension when practicing playing acoustic musical drums is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,069,307 to Rogers. This device, however, requires the use of a custom fabricated drumhead and an inflatable bladder to create a tensioned practice drum. As such, the tensioned device of U.S. Pat. No. 6,069,307 is complex and expensive to produce.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a drum practice device that is very quiet but maintains the feel of a drumhead and preserves much of the sound characteristics of the drum on which it is used.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a drum practice device that can be removably attached to an acoustic drum easily and without damaging the drum or made as a self contained drum practice device with its own drumhead and practice drumhead.